Supersonic flights are coming back, this time at biz class rates

BOOM Supersonic hopes its jet will cut travel time by half

Travellers of a certain vintage may remember a time when one could fly between New York and London in just 3.5 hours on the Concorde. In 2003, the glamorous but expensive and noisy Concorde was retired.

Now, a startup called Boom Supersonic is promising to bring back supersonic travel on airplanes. Hearing its CEO Blake Scholl talk at the Dubai Airshow, one could just wonder why it took so long. Blake plans to use available technologies to develop the new airframe, which could fly at 2.2 Mach (1 Mach is the speed of sound), and halve the trave time on commercial flights. One could potentially fly Paris to New York in 3.5 hours as compared to the seven hours it takes right now.

The airframe maker has a significantly different approach to supersonic flights from the Concorde. The plane would use, for instance, a turbofan engine similar to the subsonic jets on today’s planes, and not the afterburners which slingshot the Concorde into supersonic mode. This would make Boom’s aircraft quieter letting them land at busy city airports like London Heathrow at night.

The plane would be able to accommodate 55 passengers in a business class configuration, or 30 first class passengers and 15 business class passengers. The best part is that the airframe maker expects that the prices to fly on these new supersonic planes will not be astronomical and more in line with business class of today. For instance, a business class ticket between London to New York would be in the range of $5,000 (Rs3,25,000).

Five airlines, including Richard Branson’s Virgin have already placed an order for 76 of these airplanes when they will be available 2023 onwards, and the company says it is in talks with at least 20 other airlines. Boom will have its first test flight in Nevada next year.

Ajay Awtaney writes on aviation and hospitality at Live from a Lounge. He was at Dubai Airshow 2017 at his own expense